The Fateful Meeting
by TheGoodGamer99
Summary: As ash and his friends Clemont and Bonnie are traveling, they meet a girl that instantly takes interest in them... one of them in particular. AshXSerena.
1. Prologue

Ash and Serena: A Love Story

 **Hey guys! This is going to be my first story and I hope you guys really enjoy this I got the idea for it and just felt the urge to write it and I hope you guys enjoy and I appreciate any tips or corrections. I don't own any part of the Pokémon franchise.**

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It was just another day for 16-year-old Ash Ketchum. He is on his way to Coumarine City for his fourth gym battle, along with his friends Clemont and Bonnie. The trio has decided to take a short break before they reach their destination. Clemont was preparing dinner, while Bonnie was grooming Bunnelby and Chespin. Ash, no surprise was training. As Bonnie watched Ash try to perfect a complex maneuver with Frogadier, she decided to look at her brothers Kalos Guide Book. She began mindlessly flipping through the pages, until something caught her eye.

"…. What's this?". "What is it Bonnie?" Clemont asked. "Look at this!" she said, thrusting the booklet at her older sibling. Clemont took the book and readjusted his glasses. "… A Pokémon Showcase?" he asked. "Yea! Doesn't it look like fun? And there's one happening in Coumarine City in two days!" The more the lemon haired girl talked, the more excited she became, to the point where she couldn't stand still anymore and started hopping from foot to foot. "Do you think we can go to it Clemont? Please? It looks like a lot of fun!" Clemont began to think. "We should have to ask Ash too. After all, he is the reason we're going to Coumarine City in the first place." "Okay! I'll go ask him!" she said leaving her brother to go get Ash.

Ash was busy trying to perfect a special combo using Frogadiers Water Pulse and his Cut. Just as he finished running through the exercise, Bonnie ran up and started yanking on his sleeve. "Hey Ash! Do you think we could go to a Pokémon Showcase in Coumarine city?" she asked excitedly. The raven haired trainer got a confused look on his face as he looked at the energetic young girl before him. "What's a Pokémon Showcase?" he asked.

Bonnie began to explain the basics of a Showcase to her thick headed companion. "In a Showcase, a trainer and Pokémon compete in various trials that can be anything from styling to baking to trivia, and if they pass the initial 'theme' round, then they go on to the freestyle round. In the freestyle, trainers and their Pokémon try to amaze the crowd with their unique routines, mixing dancing with the Pokémon's abilities to create amazing performances that take your breath away!... at least that's what the guide book said." She finished. Ash scratched his cheek and looked thoughtful. Just as Bonnie thought she was going to explode with anxiety, Ash looked at her and smiled. "Sure! Why not?" Bonnie leaped into the air and cheered, then immediately ran back to tell Clemont her good news.

Ash smiled. Though he would usually have gone straight to the gym upon reaching the city, Bonnie had simply wanted to go to this Showcase so bad, he just couldn't say no. He smiled again as he watched the two lemon haired sibling speak and then as the younger one went back to her grooming. He was happy to have them traveling with him. They were incredibly helpful and full of energy, and no matter what they would back him up in every case. They deserved to do something they wanted to do, even if it meant delaying his gym battle.

After another half hour of training Clemont finally announced that he had finished dinner. After everyone had eaten their fill, they all began preparing for bed, excited by the prospect of arriving at Coumarine city tomorrow and then by the Showcase they would be going to see. Little did one raven haired boy know, that going to this showcase, would change his life forever.

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 **Alright, now I know this first part is relatively short, but that's only because it's a new idea and I want to know if you guys would enjoy it if I finished the story. Anyways guys thanks for reading and please leave a review, and if this first part does well I might just upload chapter 1!  
**


	2. Chapter 1: Coumarine City

It was a cool day as Ash walked into the Coumarine Pokémon Center. He sat down on the plush couched that were common in the hospitals. Clemont plopped down onto the cushion next to him, exhausted from trying to keep up with Ashes quick pace, though it didn't help that he insisted on lugging that giant pack of his everywhere he went. Bonnie was on the other side of Clemont, excitedly talking to Dedene, who had just woken up from his usual nap.

"Are you excited for the showcase tomorrow Dedene?" she asked her small friend. "Dene ne!" the tiny mouse answered, looking lovingly at his friend. Ash smiled, happy that Bonnie was excited, even if it meant not getting to go straight to his gym battle. At this thought, he turned to Clemont, who was still trying to catch his breath after running so far. "So Clemont, any clues as to what I'll be facing at the Coumarine Gym?" he asked. "Well, all I know is that the gym leader, Ramos, specializes in Grass type Pokémon and own several Pokémon ranches in the area. Unfortunately, that's all I know about Ramos." "Hmm… Grass types huh…." Ash mumbled, already working on a strategy.

"HEY" Bonnie yelled. "You better remember that you promised we would go to the showcase before your gym battle!" she told him sternly. Ash just smiled. "Okay, okay! Calm down! I was just asking about the gym; it's not like I'm already running there!" he said. "Good!" Bonnie turned back and continued playing with Dedene.

"So Clemont where is the showcase anyways?" Ash asked his friend. The young inventor pointed out the window to a fancy looing building with work men surrounding it. "The guide book said that it's taking place in that theater. Apparently, this will be Coumarines first Pokémon Showcase!" he told Ash.

Ash nodded, and got up. "I'm going to go train. You know where to find me."

"Okay" the lemon haired gym leader said already studying a drawing he made of one of his inventions.

As Ash exited the Pokémon Center, he called out his Pokémon: Frogadier, Hawlucha, Goomy, and Fletchinder. As they approached the field, he decided to start with Frogadier. As they resumed their exercise from yesterday, Ash didn't notice a young woman walking behind him on her way into the Pokémon Center. As Frogadier used water pulse again, Ash was forced to jump to the side to avoid the speeding globe of liquid… which then hit the unsuspecting girl who had been walking by.

"WHAT THE…" she yelled as she was thrown to the ground, now dripping wet. "Hey are you alright?" Ash said as he ran over to her. The girl looked to be about the same age as him. She had long, honey blonde hair and large, blue eyes and wore a red skirt, a black blouse, and a pink hat with a black ribbon going around it.

"Are you okay? Are you hurt?" Ash asked as her finally reached her side. The girl looked up at him and then slowly nodded. "That's great! Here, let me help you up." He said as he reached down to help her. The girl quickly hid her face and took his hand, and as he pulled her up she gained a little too much momentum and ran into him. Luckily, he caught her before she could fall back to the ground. He didn't however notice her blush as she felt herself being held in this boy's arms.

As they separated she noticed boxes of various size scattered around the ground, and started to panic as she began to collect as many of the boxes as she could. As she dashed around and checked to make sure none of the items had been damaged, Ash decided to help her collect the boxes.

As they collected the last box, the girl looked at the boy and then immediately looked away. "Th-thank you for helping me" she said quietly. Ash smiled "No problem. It was the least I could do after that water pulse!" As he said this Frogadier looked down embarrassed. "It's alright, I don't think anything was damaged." She said, slowly calming down and now able to look at him without stuttering.

Ash smiled "Good. Hey why are you carrying so many boxes any ways?"

"I just got back from shopping in town" she answered.

"Oh okay, well do you need any help carrying them?" Ash asked.

She looked at him and slowly nodded, showing she would appreciate his help.

"Okay then, do you have a room in the Pokémon center?" he asked as he recalled all his Pokémon.

"Yes, it's on the second floor" she answered.

"Okay then let's go!" he said, picking his boxes back up. As they entered the building Ash suddenly realized he didn't even know the girls name. "Hey, what's your name anyways?" he asked. "I'm Serena" she answered "and what is yours?" "I'm Ash" he said "and this is my partner Pikachu." "Pika!" exclaimed the yellow creature. "Nice to meet you both" Serena said with a smile.

As they passed through the lobby, Bonnie ran up to them. "Ash, there you are! We got our room ready and… who's this?" she asked, looking at Serena "and why are you all wet?". "Bonnie, this is Serena and I'm helping her carry these boxes to her room." Ash said. "As for why I'm wet," Serena said giving Ash a stern look "Ash accidentally hit me with a water pulse." Ash smiled sheepishly "Again, sorry about that." "It's fine" she told him "I'll just have to change, it's no big deal."

"Well, me and Clemont are going to go up to the room. If you want, I can take your bag." Said Bonnie. "Sure that would be great, thanks." After taking his bag, Bonnie ran back to Clemont who was already starting up the steps.

"All right let's get going." Ash said, and began following Serena up the stairs. Upon reaching the door to her room, she turned to Ash and had him hold one of her boxes as she fished around for her room key. Once she had the door open, she ushered Ash inside the room and then followed.

"Okay, where should I put them?" Ash asked, looking around the room, which resembled the other rooms in the Pokémon center. It was a bare room with 2 beds, a couch, a wooden coffee table and a TV upon a stand against one wall.

"You can just put them on that bed" she said, gesturing towards the bed that was obviously not being used. As they dropped their loads onto the bed, a clock on the wall began ringing and showed it was 8:30.

"Wow, it's later than I thought" said Ash, "well I had better get back to Bonnie and Clemont."

"Oh, okay then. Thanks for your help, good night." Said Serena, distracted once again by checking that her boxes were undamaged.

"Good night" Ash said as he left.

Once he was gone, Serena finally began to relax. She had no idea as to why she had been so nervous when she had been around Ash. Of course she knew that Ash was attractive, but so were other boys. So why did Ash seem so different? What was it about him that made her stutter as if she was retarded? She had no answers to any of these questions, but as she finally finished checking her boxes and made sure their contents were okay, she laid back on her bed and realized just how tired she was. She decided to change into her pajama's and crawled into bed, silently deciding to find answers to her questions after tomorrow. After all, she had to focus on her career first, or what would become her career if she won tomorrow.


	3. Chapter 2: Restless

**Hey guys so I actually finished this part early and felt bad that it was just sitting there in my documents, so I decided to upload it. I do not own any part of the Pokemon franchise.**

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As Ash return to his room, he began to think about Serena. He didn't understand why, but she seemed familiar. He couldn't figure out how he knew her, but he was sure that they had met before. Ash sighed, frustrated. He didn't like not knowing something he felt that he should know.

As he entered the room he would be sharing with Clemont and Bonnie, he was so distracted that he almost tripped over Bonnie, who was lying on the floor with Dedene.

"Ow!" shouted Bonnie, surprised at being stepped on.

"Oh! Sorry Bonnie!" Ash said, coming out of his thoughts. "Are you okay?"

Bonnie stood up rubbing the spot on her back where Ash had stepped on her. She had a sour expression on her face as she turned to look at Ash

"I'm fine." She said, bitterly.

"Oh good." Ash said, relieved that he hadn't hurt his friend.

"Hey, where's Clemont?" Ash asked, not seeing the inventive gym leader.

"He said he had to go get something from a store nearby, and that he would be back in about an hour."

"Oh, okay" he said, wondering what his friend wanted to go get so late at night.

Suddenly, Bonnie got a devilish grin on her face, the one she got right before she did something that usually embarrasses Clemont. "So Ash" she said "who was that Serena girl you were with" Ash gave Bonnie a confused look "Huh? I told you, I accidentally hit her with a water pulse and then decided to help her carry her stuff to her room. Why?" Bonnie continued to give Ash her troublemaker smile, "Oh no reason… you have to admit though, she was kind of cute…"

Ash paled as he realized what Bonnie was up to. "No Bonnie, you are not going to start trying to set me up with random girls!" he said, determined to stop this problem before it started. Bonnie's smug look turned to one of surprise as Ash figured out where she was going with these questions. She immediately recovered from her unexpected predicament and instantly started to work on a new plan.

As she thought, she smiled. "Well… At least admit you think she's cute!"

Ash suddenly started blushing, which surprised him. Bonnie saw this and her grin grew even larger. "Ah ha! You do think she's cute!" Ash began to blush more and more as Bonnie continued to grill him. "So tell me… is she nice? Is she smart? Come on Ash! Tell me everything!"

Ash was really starting to get upset at this point. "Bonnie! I've known her for maybe half an hour! So just stop! I don't know anything about her okay? Now just stop asking, please?" Ash said.

Bonnie was surprised. She had never seen Ash get this upset before and he had never yelled, at least not while she was around.

"… okay Ash." she said quietly, looking down at the ground.

Ash sighed and sat down on his bed. He hadn't meant to yell at Bonnie, but she was just so relentless in her questioning. "I… I'm sorry, Bonnie. I think I'm going to go to bed now. Goodnight." "Goodnight." She said crawling into her own bed.

As Ash was laying in his bed, his mind once again wandered back to the girl he had met that evening. _Do I really think she's cute?_ Ash thought, still thinking about what Bonnie had said to him. _Well I guess she was pretty, but so what?_ He thought, just trying to get this awkward situation out of his head.

Ash was still thinking when Clemont entered the room. He had a large grocery bag with him and as he walked Ash could hear something in the bag make a clinking sound. Ash sat up and turned to his friend.

"Hey Clemont. What's in the bag?"

"Oh, it's nothing. Hey what are you still doing up?" Clemont asked, as it was now approaching midnight.

"I can't sleep; my head is just to active." Answered Ash, being careful so as to not mention why his mind was so active.

"Oh okay, well you had better try to get some sleep. Wouldn't want you nodding off in the middle of the showcase tomorrow." Clemont said as he pulled his pajamas out of his bag.

Ash looked at the clock on the wall. "Woah! I didn't realize just how late it was! Well I guess I had better get to sleep, goodnight Clemont."

"Goodnight Ash."

And with that the two friends crawled under their covers and went to sleep.

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 **So first and foremost, thank you guys for reading. I know not much was happening in this chapter, but I've decided to upload the next chapter later today cause I'm almost done with it. If you guys have any suggestion as to what I should do in this story, then please leave a review and I will read it and may even use your suggestion in the next chapter. Thanks again guys.**


	4. Chapter 3: Showcase Surprise

**Hey guys. So I finally finished this chapter and as I promised it is now up so I hope you guys enjoy. I do not own any part of the Pokemon Franchise.**

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Ash awoke to a small girl beating on his chest, as she had been for the last five minutes.

"ASH! WAKE UP!" yelled Bonnie, who was beginning to get tired from constantly trying to wake the raven haired trainer. Finally, Ash groaned and Bonnie heard him mumble "Bonnie… stop… ow…"

"Well it's about time you got up! We were about to go have breakfast without you!" the young girl said. At hearing this Ash sat up and started getting dressed. Normally he would have wanted to stay in bed but there was food to be eaten.

As he and Bonnie came down stairs he saw that Clemont had set up his portable kitchen out by the training field. As they ran out to him, they could smell he was cooking up a storm of eggs, bacon, hash browns and even a few pancakes. As they approached, Clemont looked over his shoulder. "Good, you're up. I was worried we would have to eat without you." "How could I sleep in if it means missing out on your cooking?" Ash told his friend. Clemont sheepishly scratched his cheek, both embarrassed and pleased at his friends' praise. "Well, it's not doing any good just sitting there! Dig in!" Clemont said, taking the last of the food off of the portable stove.

As they began eating, they heard the doors to the Pokémon center open. They all turned around to find Serena approaching their table with a box. "There you are!" she said walking right up to Ash. "Hey Serena, what's up?" he said.

"Well, I wanted to thank you." She said, handing him the box. "You know… for helping me yesterday." Ash opened the box, revealing about a dozen Pokepuffs. "I baked them myself last night." Serena said. "Wow thanks Serena! These look great!" Ash said taking one of the sweets and popping the whole thing in his mouth. After a few seconds, Ash's face lit up like a Christmas tree. "They're delicious!" he exclaimed, handing some to Clemont and Bonnie, who also tried them.

"Wow, these are amazing!" said Clemont.

"MMMMMMM" mumbled Bonnie who, like Ash, had stuffed the whole thing in her mouth.

Serena smiled, obviously pleased. "Thanks guys!" "Hey Serena, why don't you eat with us." Ash asked. "Oh um. Okay." Serena said surprised. Ash moved to make room for her on the bench he was sitting on, and Serena sat down. The next few minutes were spent with the group enjoying their breakfast and complementing Clermont's cooking.

Once they were done eating, Serena went over and picked up a few of the boxes Ash had helped her carry to her room. "Sorry guys, but I have to go now." She said heading back to the Pokémon center.

"Wait! Serena!" Bonnie yelled. Ash tensed wondering if Bonnie was going to try to ask Serena to 'take care of him'.

"What is it Bonnie?" Serena asked

"Would you like to come with us to the Pokémon Showcase later?" Bonnie asked, to the relief of Ash. Serena smiled. "Sorry, but I have other plans so I can't go with you." She said. "Oh okay, well bye." Bonnie said, disappointed. She was really starting to like Serena. "Bye!" Serena said, rushing into the Pokémon center.

As the three friends began to clean up their breakfast, Serena quickly exited the Pokémon center and crossed the street to the theatre on the other side. There she was greeted by a teal haired woman with a checklist.

"Hi I'm Serena, I'm performing in the Showcase." She said. Showing her pass to the woman. The woman quickly checked her list and wrote something down.

"Alright right this way, miss Amour." She said, gesturing towards a door to the side with the words 'Dressing Room' written on it. Serena ducked inside the door and noticed several other girls already there. Most of them were talking to their Pokémon. Others were waiting to use the curtained dressing booth others were heading down a hall way that was labeled 'Training Rooms'.

Serena saw an open spot near a bench on the other side of the room and dropped off her boxes there. She then decided to start getting her Pokémon ready. "Okay, come out Fennekin and Pancham!" she said as she threw her pokeballs into the air. With two small flashes, she was joined by her partners.

"Fenn!"

"Pan!"

"Alright guys, let's start getting you ready for the showcase!" Serena said, opening one of her boxes.

A few hours later Ash, Bonnie, and Clemont entered the theatre and went to go find seats. They managed to get pretty good seats in the center of the stands. As they waited for the showcase to begin, they were amazed at just how many people had shown up to watch the showcase. There must have been hundreds of them filling the stands! And then, when it seemed the stands couldn't hold any more people, the lights went out and everyone in the theatre went silent.

Suddenly, a single spotlight reviled a tall man in an electric blue suit and matching top hat holding a staff that seemed to have a ring of keys attached to it. "Bonjour" the man said "I am Monsieur Pierre, and it is my honor to welcome you to the Coumarine City Pokémon Showcase!" The crowd let out a big cheer. "This is how the showcase will work" Pierre said "We shall start with our theme performance where three performers at a time will compete to move on to the free style performance, after which we shall find out who will receive the coveted Princess Key!" as he said this, he raised his staff and the ring of keys popped off and began floating around the stage, and then eventually back to Monsieur Pierre and gave him a beautiful gold and pink key. "Thank you Klefki." "Klef!"

"Alright, now let us introduce our lovely performers that will be competing in tonight's showcase!" and then, with a gesture, a hole in the stage appeared and a line of girls and Pokémon rose to stand on stage. The crowd cheered. The girls were then introduced one by one, going down the line.

Up to this point Ash had been distracted within his own thoughts of his next gym battle… that is until he heard a name that he actually recognized. There, standing with two Pokémon, was none other than…

"Performer Serena!"

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 **So first off, thanks so much for reading this and I hope you guys are enjoying this series as much as I am. If you guys want me to do anything special with this story than please leave me a pm or a review and I will read it and may even use your idea in the next chapter. Thanks again.**


	5. Chapter 4: Coumarine City Showcase

**Hey guys, so here is the next chapter, and I hope you guys enjoy this as much as I do. Thanks to GamingKenetics for a very good suggestion. Remember, I do not own any part of the Pokémon Franchise.**

Ash had to look twice to make sure he hadn't misheard Monsieur Pierre. There was Serena, standing on the stage with a Pancham and a Fennekin. The Pancham was wearing what looked like designer sunglasses, and the Fennekin had a small white and pink fedora that matched Serena's dress. Serena was wearing a sleeveless pink dress with red trim, white gloves, and back leggings. She had most of her honey blond hair put up in a big pink bow that matched her dress perfectly.

"Wow! Serena looks so pretty!" said Bonnie, who had been just as surprised as Ash had been when they called Serena's name.

"So that's why she said she couldn't come to the showcase with us!" Clemont said.

Ash was still speechless, just staring at Serena in her pretty dress with her Pokémon, on the stage with the spotlight on her. She looked…

"Beautiful…" Ash whispered to himself.

"And now, ladies and gentlemen" Pierre said, drawing the crowds' attention back to him "it is time to begin the showcase with our theme performance!" The crowd let out an excited cheer as a large screen overlooking the stage suddenly came to life. "Tonight's theme performance will be…" Pierre said "Pokepuff baking!" As he said this, a vast number of different Pokepuffs appeared on the giant screen as the crowd let out another cheer. "Our judges are ready, so let us get the baking underway! We will be calling out performers three at a time to compete and each performer may use one Pokémon to aid in the creation of your Pokepuffs!" As he was speaking the floor under the performers opened up once more and the line of girls were slowly lowered back down to wherever they had come from. "Our first set of performers will be performers Lily, Hannah, and Lauren!"

As the girls began making their Pokepuffs, Ash began to pay more attention, though not because he had developed an interest in the showcase, though it was plenty interesting enough. He was watching to see what Serena's competition would be. He already knew that Serena would win the theme performance, since he had tasted her Pokepuffs just that morning. He knew that if Serena could recreate those Pokepuffs, then there was no way that she could lose.

After watching several more performers pass on to the freestyle performance, Pierre finally announced the final set of performers. "And finally, welcome to the stage our final three performers. Here are performers Gwen, Marie, and Serena!" the crowd let out a large cheer as the three girls rose to the stage and went to one of three kitchens. Once they were all in position to begin, Pierre gave a gesture and a giant hour glass appeared on the big screen above the girls. "As with the other rounds, the performers will have 10 minutes to make their best Pokepuffs. So let us start the show!" and with that, the hour glass flipped and began the count down.

It was immediately evident that some of the contestants had either not been baking long or not been baking Pokepuffs much. The first girl Marie stumbled around her kitchen with her Klink and began to make what looked like a Pokepuff. Gwen seemed to move around her set a little more confidently, barking at her Elekid to get ingredients and various appliances. Serena moved around her kitchen with the most confidence, as she and her Fennekin began preparing her Pokepuffs. It also became obvious that the Pokémon was also very important. While Marie's Klink wasn't much use in the kitchen, Elekid and Fennekin proved to be very good choices. Elekid was able to move quickly from spot and carry many different ingredients in his large arms. Fennekin was able to help by using her ember to cook the Pokepuffs far faster than the ovens could, which really put Serena in the lead, as she was already decorating her Pokepuffs while Gwen's and Marie's were still cooking. As the hour glass began to run out, large dividers popped up and separated the performers from each other and the audience. "It is now time for our contestants to put the finishing touches on their Pokepuffs." Said Pierre.

Soon, the hour glass ran out and a loud chime rang throughout the theatre. The dividers sunk back into the floor and reviled the performers and their Pokémon, as well as their now completed desserts.

Monsieur Pierre approached each girls station and took their Pokepuffs back to let the judges examine them. "Remember, monsieur's and mademoiselles, that these Pokepuffs are being judged by look, taste, and how well the performers made them." Pierre said as the judges began quietly talking among themselves. After what felt like forever, the judges seemed to have come to a decision, and handed Pierre an envelope. He took the envelope and walked back to the stage. "And now, the moment you have all been waiting for. Who will go on to the freestyle performance? The answer is…" Pierre opened the envelope and paused for dramatic effect.

Ash looked around and saw that everyone in the audience was becoming anxious during the brief pause. He saw several people squirming in their seats, impatiently awaiting the moment when the tall man in the blue suit would announce their final contestant in the freestyle performance. Pierre sure knew how to work a crowd.

"Performer Serena!" Pierre finally exclaimed, and was rewarded with a cheer from the crowd. Serena covered her mouth with her hands and looked on the verge of tears as Fennekin nuzzled her trainers leg. Ash, Bonnie, and Clemont clapped happy for their new friend.

As the three performers were lowered down to the under stage, they could hear Monsieur Pierre telling the audience "We will now have a short intermission as our remaining performers prepare themselves for the freestyle performance. Let's have another cheer for the wonderful performances we have had so far!" and then the stage above them closed, cutting them off from the crowd. Despite this they could still hear the massive applause from the audience.

Once they were out of sight, Serena immediately ran back to the dressing room, where most of the other contestants were already ready for their freestyle performances. She rushed over to her spot, where she had left Pancham to watch over all of her stuff.

As they approached Pancham, he rushed to her and tackled her with a big hug. "Pan! Pancham cham!" he said as he squeezed his trainer. "Thanks Pancham! But we have to hurry! We still have to get ready for our freestyle performance!" she said as Pancham finally let her go.

A few minutes later Serena and her Pokémon were ready, and waiting for Serena's turn to perform. As they sat there, they watched the other performers on a ceiling mounted screen that showed the stage. With each performance that reached its finale, Serena could feel her stomach begin to tighten with nerves. She felt a small paw touch her arm and looked to see Pancham and Fennekin looking at her, worried. As soon as she saw her Pokémon her nerves suddenly calmed down. She smiled down at them. "Your right, I shouldn't be so worried about this! We've been practicing for months!" she said and stood up "So are you guys ready to show them what we've got?"

"Pan!"

"Fenn!"

Just then a women popped her head through the door. "Performer Serena, please be ready on standby." And with that she was gone. Serena looked at her two partners and gave them a confident smile. "Let's go win this thing!" she said heading for the door to the stage.

Ash, Bonnie, and Clemont were amazed at just how entertaining the freestyle performance had turned out to be. They had seen many different types of performances. Some were beautiful, others frightening, and still others were enchanting, but they were all amazing. Then came the moment the trio had been looking forward to since the intermission.

"And now, for our final performance, please welcome Performer Serena!" the crowd cheered as Serena slowly rose from under the stage with her Fennekin and the other Pokémon Ash had seen at the beginning of the showcase. She was still wearing her pink and red dress that matched with Fennekins fedora and her other Pokémons sunglasses. She looked up and seemed to be trying to catch her breath, then she looked down at her Pokémon and gave them a small nod, which they returned. She looked back at the crowd and then said "Okay, Fennekin start us off with Flamethrower!"

Fennekin let loose a torrent of flame that seemed to move and wiggle like a snake as Fennekin began running around the stage, still shooting out a seemingly endless flame. "Now, Pancham use stone edge!" with that Pancham slammed the stage with his fists and suddenly several large glowing rocks burst out of the ground and hit the flaming snake above the stage. For the next five seconds, the air was filled with dozens of writhing snakes of flame as they flew around the theatre before suddenly exploding into cascades of sparks. The crowd looked up in wonder and some even reached up to try to catch the disappearing sparks.

Before they could finish burning out, Serena began once again giving orders to her Pokémon. "Fennekin use hidden power! Pancham, arm thrust!" As Pancham leaped high into the air, Fennekin shot a glowing green orb of energy at him. Just before it reached him, Panchams arm began to glow and he hit the orb, causing a small explosion. Once the smoke cleared, everyone looked up to see Pancham, except now he was encased in a strange green sphere that was floating above the stage. As the audience gazed at the globe, Pancham began literally bouncing off the walls. As he ran and jumped inside his green prison, it began to move, slowly rolling in the air. The audience cheered loudly as Pancham went flying above their heads.

"All right! Fennekin, finish this with scratch!" Serena said holding her hands out to her partner. The small fox ran towards her trainer and, using Serena's hands as a springboard, leaped high into the air. As Fennekin approached Panchams ball, her paw began to glow and she cut the ball right down the middle just before the two Pokémon hit the ground, they twisted in midair and landed on Serena's outstretched arms, and with that they all bowed.

The crowd burst into tremendous applause. Serena's performance had been perfect! She looked at her two partners, still in their poses upon her arms and smiled. They had performed amazingly, and she was proud of them.

As the crowd's thunderous applause died down, Monsieur Pierre reappeared on the stage with his Klefki.

"Ladies and gentlemen… Performer Serena!" he said as the crowd let out another loud cheer. Serena and her Pokémon took another bow and were lowered back down to the under stage, where she was joined by the other performers.

"Now, monsieurs and mademoiselles, it is time to decide who will walk out of this theatre with this princess key!" Pierre said, lifting up the golden key. "But how will we choose who will walk away with this coveted item? Why, we leave that up to you, the audience! Under your seats you will find a Pokelume. Now, to vote for a performer, simply switch your Pokelume to the color corresponds with the performer you thought had the best freestyle performance. So first off let's bring out our performers!" At this, Pierre gestured to the center of the stage, where now stood the final five performers. They were all still in their outfits for the freestyle performance, but now each girl had a different colored key pinned onto their dress.

"So let us give our finalists one final round of applause!" Pierre said, as the crowd began cheering for their favorite performers. "And now it is time to vote! Please light your Pokelumes and raise them high in too the air." As he said this, hundreds of colored lights were raised towards the ceiling. It was like an ocean of lights. Ash, Clemont, and Bonnie all lit their Pokelumes in the pink color that matched Serena's key and raised them as high as they could. As they raised their lights, a tiny orb flew from the end and traveled down to the stage and was absorbed by Serena's key. It was then that they realized that a massive amount of the orbs was flying at the performers, one from every Pokelume. As the keys absorbed the light, five keyholes appeared on the screen above, one for each performer, and with every orb that was absorbed, the corresponding key hole would fill with color. As the orbs began to come towards the stage more slowly, the key holes were suddenly hidden by a virtual curtain.

"And now my friends, it is time to reveal who the victor of the Coumarine City Pokémon Showcase is!" Pierre once again paused, trying to get the crowd as excited as he possibly could. Once he was satisfied with the crowd's anxiety he made a small gesture and out came Klefki, now carrying an envelope, which it gave Pierre, who thanked the floating ring of keys. Pierre opened the envelope and took out a piece of paper as he read the slip, turned to the crowd and loudly said "The princess key shall now be rewarded to…"

 **Hey guys, first off, as always, thanks for reading. This is probably going to be one of the longest chapters in this story. And before anyone goes off saying this was just a filler chapter, it's not. Every chapter I upload will have some sort of importance. Also, I haven't decided, should Serena win the showcase or not? Either way there are lots of things that I could do with the story depending on if she wins, but I can't decide which one to choose. If you guys want to give me any suggestions or tell me your opinion about the story so far, then please leave a review or send me a pm. I read all reviews and answer all pm's. So, thanks again for reading!**


	6. Chapter 5: A New Rival

**Hey guys, I'm back with the next chapter. I really hope you guys are enjoying this story, because I know I am. I don't know yet when I'm going to upload the next chapter, but if you guys want me to put anything special in it, then leave a review or pm me. As always, I don't own any part of the Pokémon franchise.**

* * *

The room was silent.

Ash could feel the tension in the air. It seemed as if every person in the room was holding their breath as they awaited the announcement from the tall, blonde man in the electric blue suit. Everyone stared at him, silently begging him to reveal the performer who had won the showcase.

Even more anxious than the audience, though, were the five performers on stage. As Monsieur Pierre read the slip of paper that had the name of the winner, several of the girls could be seen squirming in the uncomfortable silence that had taken over the theatre.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Pierre finally said, "tonight we have seen some of the greatest performances in showcase history! But sadly, only one of our performers may walk away with the princess key. So, it is my great pleasure to introduce the winner of the Coumarine City Pokémon Showcase please give a big hand for…" Pierre said.

Everyone in the audience was on the edge of their seats, waiting to hear the name of their winner.

Serena closed her eyes tight and began praying.

"… Performer Serena!"

Serena's eyes were immediately opened again as she covered her mouth with her hands, once again on the verge of tears. The crowd irrupted into tremendous applause. Pancham and Fennekin were running in circles, cheering.

Pierre motioned for her to step forward. Still covering her mouth, she approached the tall blonde show host.

"Performer Serena, I now give to you the princess key." He said, and held out the key for her to take. Serena was finally able to uncover her mouth and, with a trembling hand, took the golden key. She stared at it, still unable to grasp at what she had just accomplished. All of her months of training, all her hard work, had finally paid off. She had a princess key.

"And that, my friends, is the end of our showcase. We hope you have enjoyed the performances these lovely ladies had prepared for you. Let us have one more round of applause for all the performers who did an excellent job!" Pierre said, causing the audience to once again burst out into thunderous applause.

After the performers had gone back down to the dressing room, Ash, Clemont, and Bonnie made their way out of the theatre and back to the Pokémon center.

"Wow, Serena won a princess key! That's so amazing!" Bonnie said, running circles around the boys.

"Her performance was definitely impressive." Clemont said as he tried to stop his hyper active sister.

As they approached the door to the center, Ash thought he heard a voice in an alley between the Pokémon center and the building next to it. As he left his friends to investigate the noise he suddenly turned the corner to see Serena standing there, facing another guy who had his back to Ash.

"Can you just leave me alone already!" Serena said trying to pick up her boxes, which were once again scattered on the ground.

"Why baby? I came all the way here just to be with you, and I'm definitely not leaving your side!" the guy said, and tried to take another step towards Serena. Serena instantly took a step back. "Tierno, please just leave me alone!"

Ash was getting angry. He didn't like the way that Tierno was talking to Serena. "Hey! Why don't you listen to the lady?" Ash said, causing Tierno to turn around.

He was a large boy with jet black hair that only covered the top of his head. He was wearing large yellow shorts and a black t-shirt that had a Vanillish on the front.

"Hey kid, stay out of this. This is none of your business." The large boy said, wondering who this guy was.

Ash ignored him and looked behind him at Serena. "Hey," he said to her "you okay?" she just looked at him and nodded. Ash then turned his attention back to Tierno, who was angry about being ignored. "Listen kid, I don't know who you are, but this has nothing to do with you so you had better…" Tierno stopped speaking as Ash gave him a look that could freeze a Froslass. "I don't know who you are," he said, not easing his gaze on the rude boy. "but if Serena wants you to leave her alone, then you had better listen to her."

Tierno's face suddenly went red with rage. He pulled out a Pokeball and prepared to throw it. "Why you little… Wartortle, teach him a lesson!" he said as he tossed his Pokeball into the air. With a small flash, the bright blue Pokémon appeared, ready for battle.

Ash took out his own Pokeball. "Hawlucha! I choose you!" he said and with another flash, Hawlucha was there, ready for battle.

"Wartortle, Rapid Spin!"

"Hawlucha, use Karate Chop!"

Several minutes went by as the Pokémon were unable to land a blow. Tierno's Wartortle was unnaturally fast, but after years of training as the forest champion, Hawlucha was able to easily keep paced with it. Each Pokémon seemed to have a way to counter the others moves. Whenever Wartortle would try to attack, Hawlucha would simply dodge or block the attack. Every time Hawlucha attacked, he was always stopped by Wartortle's shell.

The battle continued to drag on, as each Pokémon continued to become more and more tired. When it seemed that the battle would end in a draw, Tierno began to attack desperately, refusing to accept defeat. "Wartortle, use Hydro Pump!" Wartortle suddenly shot an unstoppable torrent of water at Hawlucha, but Ash was ready for it. "Now Hawlucha! Doge and use Flying Press!" Hawlucha launched itself high into the air, where it struck a pose mid-flight and, with a quick spin, flew towards Wartortle like a missile of feathers. Wartortle, already tired and unable to move because he was still using Hydro Pump, was hit dead on with Hawlucha's signature move. Wartortle was thrown back to Tierno's feet, unconscious.

"Wartortle!" Tierno fell to the ground and picked up his Pokémon. "Come on old buddy! You just have to get up!"

"Thanks for your help Hawlucha." Ash told his friend. "Lucha." Said the exhausted wrestler.

"Now Tierno," Ash said turning back to the boy, "are you going to continue to cause trouble?"

Tierno quietly got up, Wartortle in his arms. "You'll regret this." He said and rushed past Ash towards the Pokémon center. Ash sighed, relieved. He had been worried that Tierno would try to attack with another Pokémon. In the state he was in now, Hawlucha wouldn't have been able to take another opponent.

"Ash!" Serena said, running up to him and wrapping her arms around him. "That was amazing! I've never seen a battle like that! And you actually beat Tierno! That's the first time I have ever seen him lose!" As she was saying this, Ash could feel his cheeks turn red. Serena suddenly realized what she was doing and quickly stepped away, now blushing just as much as Ash.

"Sorry." She said. Ash laughed. "Don't worry about it. Who was that guy?" he said trying to keep her from seeing his blush. "That was Tierno. We grew up in the same town and he's always had a crush on me. Lately though, he's been getting angrier when I refuse to go out with him. We used to be good friends, but now he's just creepy." She said, looking in disgust in the direction that Tierno had fled. "I don't know how, but he managed to trap me in this alley while I was on my way to the back entrance to avoid the press." She told him as she once again began collecting her boxes.

"Oh yea! I completely forgot you just won the showcase!" Ash said as he bent down to pick up one of the boxes. Serena smiled. "Yea, I can hardly believe that I actually did it. We've been practicing for months in order to win." "Well, from what I saw you did an amazing job! None of the other performers even stood a chance!" Ash said, approaching her with the boxes he had collected. Serena blushed again and took the boxes.

"Thank you Ash." she said as she looked around, making sure they hadn't missed a box. Satisfied they had collected all of them she turned back to Ash. "So where are Clemont and Bonnie?" she asked, realizing that the duo wasn't with him. "Their already in the Pokémon Center. I kind of just left them when I heard your voice." He said, scratching the back of his head sheepishly.

Serena smiled. "Well, looks like I owe you one Ash." "It was no big deal. I just don't like when people are messing with my friends." Ash said. "Well, we had better get back to the Pokémon center. Clemont and Bonnie are bound to be worried about you." Serena said and turned to leave the alley.

Ash followed her inside. The moment he entered the lobby, Bonnie ran up to him. "There you are! You really have to stop running off like that! I thought you learned your lesson after what happened last time!" Bonnie said, failing to notice Serena. "Well what do you have to say for yourself?" "Bonnie calm down I was only..." Ash started, and faltered. Serena decided it was time for her to step in. "He was helping me." She said. Bonnie turned to her and instantly smiled. "Serena! We watched your showcase! You were absolutely amazing! And Fennekin and Pancham did a great job!" Bonnie said, forgetting all about Ash. Serena smiled at the lemon haired girl. "Thank you Bonnie." Bonnie got an excited look in her eyes. "Hey Serena! Can I see your princess key?" "Sure Bonnie." Serena said as she reached into her bag. She pulled out a metal ring with three notches to put keys. Attached to the center notch was Serena's princess key.

Ash suddenly became curious. "Hey Serena. Why are there only three notches on that key ring?" "Well, a performer is required to collect a total of three princess keys in order to compete in the Pokémon Masterclass Showcase. As you can see, this is my first key." Serena said. She put the ring back in her bag and picked up her boxes again. "Well I better go take these to my room. I guess I'll be seeing you guys around." She said and began heading towards the stairs.

"Wait Serena!" Bonnie yelled, running after her. Serena turned around. "What's up Bonnie?" "Do you want to come hang out with us for a while?" Bonnie said, unwilling to let her new friend leave so soon. Serena looked thoughtful. Suddenly, she smiled and looked down at Bonnie. "Sure. I wasn't planning to do anything tonight anyways." She said. Bonnie's smile turned into a giant grin. "Just let me go put these away and take a shower and I'll come join you guys." She said, once again heading up the stairs.

"Okay, we'll be here!" Bonnie said as she and Ash went over to join Clemont.

* * *

 **Well guys, thanks for reading. As always if you guys have any suggestions for me about something I should include in the story or if you guys want me to write another short story (probably a one-shot) then please leave a review or send me a pm. I read all reviews and answer all pm's. Thanks again, you guys are the reason I'm continuing this story, and as long as you enjoy it I will continue to write it. Bye.**


	7. Chapter 6: A Night on the Town

**Hey guys. Sorry I haven't uploaded in a while, but I made this chapter extra-long to make up for it. So, here's the next chapter for you guys. As always, I don't own any part of the Pokémon Franchise.**

Once Serena came back downstairs and joined the group again, they headed out to see what Coumarine city had to offer. They saw dozens of small shops and cafes, even a few small parks.

They kept walking around until they had found their way to a large blue building that was by far the busiest building that they had seen so far.

"What's this building?" Ash asked, watching the seemingly endless flow of people and Pokémon.

"That's the Coumarine City Monorail." Serena answered, "It connects south Coumarine City with North Coumarine City."

"Cool! Why don't we ride it and check out the other part of the city?" Ash said, already heading towards the doors, his friends following close behind. Upon reaching the terminal, they were ushered onto a sleek looking train that was already nearly full of people. No sooner then they had sat down, the doors hissed shut and the intercom relayed an illegible message as the train began to move.

The train was taking its time to build up momentum as it exited the station. Once it was outside, though, it began to pick up speed rapidly, until the ground was zipping by faster than they could imagine. In the distance they saw many ranches, all of them filled with assortments of Pokémon. There were fields filled with Vileplumes, Victoribelle, Hoppips, Skiploom, and, off in the distance, what seemed like hundreds of Sunflora. There were more grass type Pokémon here than Ash had ever seen anywhere in all of his travels.

As the train pulled into another station, the four friends rose from their seats and got ready to embark to explore the rest of Coumarine.

Once they were outside the station, the first thing they all saw was a large building that looked as if it could have held thousands of people at once. It was the only place that seemed busier than the monorail.

"What is that?" Ash asked, staring at the giant building.

"That's the Coumarine City Shopping District. That's where I bought my outfit for the showcase." Serena said.

Ash looked surprised. "You mean that entire building is filled with shops?" he said.

"That's right! Anything you would want to purchase can be found right here, from clothes to food to toys. If it's sold, you can find it here."

"Come on, I wanna check it out!" Bonnie said, rushing towards the building.

"Bonnie, wait!" Clemont said, giving chase to his younger sister. Ash laughed and ran after them, Serena following close behind.

As they entered the building they could see hundreds of different shops. There were clothing stores, cafes, toy shops, pharmacies, literally every kind of shop imaginable. There were people and Pokémon everywhere, way too many to even think about trying to count.

"So, where do we go first?" Ash ask, not being much of a shopper.

"I wanna go to them all!" Bonnie said, eyes darting from one storefront to another. "They have everything here!"

"Well if you don't mind, I would like to go make a call." Clemont said.

"Go ahead. We'll meet you back here when we're done, okay?" Ash said.

As Clemont left, Bonnie grabbed both his and Serena's hands and started pulling them towards the shops. "Come on already! The shops don't stay open all day!"

They both laughed and let the small girl lead them around the stores. After about an hour of looking at different shops, Ash was beginning to get bored. He continued to look at stores for Bonnies sake, but wasn't really paying attention. He was thinking about his gym battle again when he was snapped back to reality when he heard someone speaking to him. "… Ash? Are you okay?" Serena asked, snapping him out of his daze.

"What? Oh sorry I was just thinking." He said turning to face her. She got a curious look on her face. "What were you thinking about."

"I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to win my gym battle with Ramos tomorrow." He answered.

"Oh, I didn't realize you were in the Kalos league." She said, "But with how well you battled with Tierno, I'm sure you'll win."

Ash smiled. "Thanks Serena." he said, "Now, what were you saying to me?"

"Oh! We were wondering if you wouldn't mind us going into this store." She said, pointing at a clothing shop behind her where Bonnie was gazing at a dress in the window.

"Sure." He said, and followed Serena and Bonnie into the store. It seemed to be one of the busiest shops in this section of the mall. There were customers everywhere, looking at clothes, trying them on, comparing prices, etc.

The girls immediately dragged him over to a rack full of brightly colored dresses. As he watched, Serena went through the rack with the slow confidence of someone who knew wat they were doing. Once her arms were full of dresses, she looked at Bonnie and said, "Want to try a few on?". Bonnie immediately got a gleam in her eyes and nodded.

As they went over to the changing rooms, Ash looked at the clock. "Hey guys, we had better go meet Clemont soon." Serena looked back at him. "Okay, we just wanna try a few of these on and then we can go." She said as she and Bonnie walked into the dressing room.

Ash sighed and sat on a bench outside the dressing room. He once again allowed his mind to wander back to his battle. He already knew he would use Fletchinder against Ramos' grass types. He also decided that Hawlucha would be a good choice due to his speed and power. And for his third Pokémon he had a choice of Frogadier, Goomy, or Pikachu. Against grass types, water, dragon, and electric type attacks would be very helpful. But after considering all of his partner's strengths and weaknesses, he knew was the obvious choice would be. He would have to use… he stopped as a hand touched his shoulder. When he looked up, all thoughts of battling instantly left his mind.

Before him stood Bonnie and Serena, both now wearing dresses. Bonnie wore a bright yellow dress that matched her hair beautifully. The dress went down to her knees and had pure white fringes along the bottom of the skirt. In her hair she had a bright blue ribbon that brought out the color in her hair, which was down rather than in its usual sideways ponytail. She had on slippers that seemed to simmer as she walked, giving off the impression that she was wearing shoes made of gold. Bonnie was, by far, the cutest thing in the entire store, possibly the entire building.

Serena, on the other hand, had a completely different kind of dress on. She wore a full sleeveless gown that went down to her ankles, just enough so that the red shoes she was wearing were visible. The dress was a deep red that went beautifully with her hair, which was now flowing down her back unrestrained, the only accessory that could be seen in it was a small pink bow located just above her ear.

While Bonnie had been cute, Serena was, without a doubt, beautiful. For the first time in his life, Ash had no idea of what to say. He just stood there staring at them, trying to find where his words had gone.

"Well?" Bonnie said, twirling so he could see her entire dress.

"Wow… you guys look… amazing…" he said as he slowly regained the ability to speak.

Bonnie sighed. "We know that. What do you think about my dress in particular?" Ash smiled, "You look adorable Bonnie." Bonnie faked a gasp. "Did Ash Ketchum just say adorable? Now we know my dress is good!" Ash laughed and Bonnie smiled, "Now," she said and turned towards Serena, "what do you think of Serena's dress?"

Once again Ash was lost for words. Before him stood what was possibly the most beautiful creature he had ever seen in all of his journeys. He had seen girls in pretty dresses before, but not like this. He searched for a word to describe it, but after failing to find one just decided to use the first one that came to his mind.

"You look beautiful Serena." He said.

Serena's blush was there before she could look away. The moment Ash had said that she could feel her face turn crimson. She quickly looked away and hoped that Ash hadn't noticed.

Bonnie gasped. "He said adorable and beautiful? Wow we must look outstanding!" she said, causing Ash to laugh.

"Come on guys, we have to go meet Clemont." He said.

"Oh, fine." Bonnie said and took Serena's hand and lead her to the dressing room.

As they changed back into their normal clothes, Bonnie came up to her and said, "You like him, don't you?"

Serena was surprised. "Who?" she asked, though she already knew who she was talking about. _But she can't know about that. She's still young._

"Ash. It's pretty obvious that you do." Bonnie replied.

Serena went pale. _Crap._ "It is?" _Could he have noticed!_

Bonnie laughed. "Yeah, it is. And don't worry, Ash is dense. The only way he'll find out is if someone tells him."

Serena was relieved. "Oh okay."

"So do you like him or not?" Bonnie said.

Serena realized that the girl wasn't going to let this go. She began blushing again. "I… I don't know… maybe… I…" she stuttered, not knowing what to say in this situation. Did she just come out and confess? Or did she dismiss Bonnies question and try to continue the day as casually as possible?

But she didn't have to do anything. Bonnie saw her blush and her stuttering and knew the answer immediately. "I knew it!" she said, smiling.

Serena paled. In the short time that she had known her, she knew that Bonnie liked to talk, and now that she knew that she liked Ash she was afraid that the lemon haired girl would end up telling everyone.

"You're not going to tell him, are you?" She asked nervously.

Bonnie was surprised. "Now, why would I do that?" she said. Her excitement confused Serena. "This could turn out to be an amazing love story, like those movies Clemont says I shouldn't watch!" Bonnie said. Serena sighed, relieved that her secret was safe.

Once they had finished getting dressed they went back out to where Ash was sitting. When he saw them he stood up and went over to help them carry the dresses they had collected back to the racks they had been taken from. Once all of the dresses were back where they belonged, the trio exited the store and went back to where they had last seen Clemont.

When they reached the spot they had designated as their meeting place, they looked around but didn't see Clemont anywhere. They decided to wait for a little bit and sat on a nearby bench. They waited about twenty minutes, but still Clemont didn't show up. Bonnie began to get restless.

"I'm gonna go to the bathroom and check if he's over by the phones." Bonnie said, standing up. Ash stood up as well. "Good idea. Let's go." He said. He was immediately stopped by Bonnie. "No. You and Serena should stay here in case he comes back here. I promise I'll only go there and back." She said.

Ash scratched his cheek. "Well… okay I guess." Bonnie smiled and, with a quick wink at Serena, ran off into the crowd. Serena immediately blushed once she realized what Bonnie was doing.

They sat there in silence and watched the crowd around them for any signs of Clemont. Serena began to become bored and decided to try to talk to Ash.

"Hey, Ash…" she said as she turned to him. Upon hearing his name, the raven haired trainer turned towards Serena.

"What's up Serena?" he asked.

At first she had no idea of what to say to him. She began desperately searching for a topic to talk about that wouldn't end up being awkward. As she tried to come up with something to talk about, her eyes fell on the Pokeballs attached to his belt.

"… What kind of Pokémon do you have? Other than Hawlucha and Pikachu of course." She asked. It was a weak topic, but a topic none the less.

Ash's eyes lit up. He reached down to his belt and took three pokeballs off of it. He threw them up in the air and, with a trio of small flashes, there stood a Frogadier, Goomy and, hovering beside them, Fletchinder.

"Serena, you remember Frogadier, right?" Ash said.

Serena was confused. She had seen Ash battle with Hawlucha and he always had Pikachu around, but she had never seen the water type except for…

"Oh right! How could I have forgotten!" she said crouching down in front of Frogadier. "You were the one who hit me with that water pulse!" Frogadier looked down embarrassed. This made Serena laugh. "Its fine, you have nothing to be embarrassed about!" she said, trying to cheer up the three-foot frog. Frogadier looked up and saw she was serious and seemed relieved.

Serena then turned to Fletchinder. "Wow a Fletchinder. I've seen plenty of Fletchling but not a Fletchinder." She said and began running her hand down Fletchinders feathers.

She then turned to Goomy. "Hmmm… I've never seen this Pokémon before. What is it?" "Serena, this is Goomy." Ash said. Goomy jumped on Serena and started nuzzling her. "Eek! It's so slimy!" She said as Goomy landed on her. Ash laughed.

Once Serena had gotten Goomy off of her, she stood up and rejoined Ash on the bench as he recalled his Pokémon. Just then, an old woman walked up to them. "Excuse me," she said, "but do either of you know where I can find the Sillion Café?"

Ash stood up and pointed back into the crowd that still filled the large building. "If I remember correctly, I think it was over in that area." He said.

"Thank you," the elderly woman said, "and, I just have to say… you two are an adorable couple!"

Serena could feel her blush appear on her face faster than either her or Ash could react to her comment.

Ash looked surprised. "No ma'am, we aren't…" he began to say, but by then the lady had left in the direction Ash had directed her.

Serena was still trying to control her blush as Ash sat back down next to her. "Well… I definitely didn't expect that." She said, trying to restart the conversation. Ash laughed, which caused her to relax. "Yea… I guess she was just confused." As he looked around he saw two patches of lemon wading in the crowd. He began waving his arm. "Clemont! Bonnie! Over here!" he said as the duo began pushing their way through the crowd.

As they reached them, Ash and Serena stood up. "Where were you, Clemont?"

"Sorry guys," he said sheepishly, "I was helping this guy fix one of the phones and lost track of time. Before I knew it, Bonnie was there telling me that you guys had been waiting for me."

Serena looked confused. "How do you know how to fix a phone?"

Ash laughed. "Well, you see, Clemont is an inventor, as well as the gym leader of the Lumiose City Gym."

Serena's eyes widened. "You're a gym leader?" she asked.

"Well… Yeah." Clemont said sheepishly.

Their conversation was then interrupted by a loud crack from the PA system imbedded in the ceiling. "Attention, the Coumarine Shopping District will be closing its doors in half an hour. Thank you."

"We had better get going before the Monorail gets overrun." Serena said.

The group hurried out of the building and then to the monorail station. As they entered the station they saw that the monorail was almost completely full. They rushed and made it to the train before the doors closed. However, when the four of them tried to board the train, a tall man in a blue uniform stopped them.

"Sorry kids, but we've only got room for two more." He said. They looked at each other.

"Well, do you know when the train will return?" Clemont asked, hoping that they could just catch the next one.

The man looked at his watch. "It should be back here in about an hour, give or take a few minutes." He said.

Ash turned to Clemont and Bonnie. "You guys go ahead; we can wait for the next train."

Clemont looked doubtful, but then the man said, "If two of you aren't getting on, then the trains gotta leave now."

Clemont sighed. "Come on Bonnie." He said as he and his sister walked onto the train.

As the train pulled out of the station, Ash turned to Serena. "So, what should we do while we wait for the train?"

Before she could answer, the tall man walked up to them. "You know, if you left now, you guys could probably walk back before the train even comes back." He said, leading them towards a wall mounted map. "Here, this path should take you straight to the Pokémon Center in the southern half of the city." He said, pointing at a route that ran through the ranches they had seen on their way here.

"Thanks a lot." Ash said.

"No problem." He said and walked away, returning to his post in preparation for the evening rush.

Ash turned towards Serena. "Well, what do you think?"

Serena looked at the map again, tracing the route with her eyes. "Well, it seems better than waiting in an overcrowded train station." She said.

"Right, let's get going then." He said as he headed towards the door, Serena following close behind.

Once they were outside they followed the road until they came to a dirt path that wound up a hill in the direction of the ranches.

As they walked along the path they began to talk about random things. They continued on like this for about twenty minutes when Serena thought of a question that had been nagging at her.

"Hey… Ash?" she said nervously.

"Yeah?" Ash answered, expecting another question about Hoenn or Johto.

"Do you… have a girlfriend?" Serena forced out.

Ash was genuinely surprised. The only person who had ever asked him that question was his mom, and then it was only as a joke. So, why was Serena asking him this?

"No, I don't, though I have many friends that are girls… why do you ask?"

Serena thought carefully about how she would answer. "Well… I don't know… I was just curious…" she said. _I was just curious!? How much more obvious could I get?_

She was surprised when Ash laughed. She gave him a confused look. He smiled at her. "I guess you can't help being curious. Come on, I think I see lights up ahead!" he said.

Serena was taken aback _. He didn't even think twice about it! I mean, I know Bonnie said he was dense, but that is just incredible!_

She ran to catch up to Ash as they approached the Pokémon center. Once they were inside they said goodnight and went to their rooms.

 **Alright guys, so first off thank you guys so much for reading my story. I noticed that not much was happening so I tried to get things moving as best I could. Unfortunately, I ended up using a lot of ideas I had planned for future chapters. So I would really be grateful if you guys could send me ideas on what to do with this story, because coming up with this stuff is much harder than it looks. So please leave me a review or pm me with any ideas, suggestions, criticism, etc. I do read all reviews and answer all pm's. Thank again for reading, the fact that you guys are enjoying this story really makes me want to continue writing it, so just thanks to everyone. Peace.**


	8. Announcment

**Hey guys, I have some announcements to make.**

 **First off, I'm really sorry I haven't uploaded any chapters recently. I just got back from a trip to Florida and I didn't have much time there to work on the story. And for those of you who may be wondering, no, the story is not over. I will continue to write the story, but first I just have to get over my writer's block.**

 **Secondly, a huge shout out to everyone who has favorited, followed, reviewed, or left a pm for me. Your support is why I am writing this story, and I just have to say thank you all. Your support means everything to me.**

 **And now the final, and probably the largest announcement I have. I'm thinking of starting another story. I feel it is about time that I put some variety in my stories, so, unfortunately, I have decided to not make this one about Pokémon. Instead, I have decided to base my story on one of my favorite anime's, Sword Art Online. I'm hoping that some of you guys will enjoy this new story once I upload it, and if any of you SAO fans have any ideas for a plot line I'd be more than willing to hear about it, so send me a pm.**

 **As you guys have probably guessed by now, I will not be uploading as much as I did in the beginning of my last story. But I still haven't finished the story so if any of you guys have any ideas for upcoming chapters, please pm me. I will try to check my inbox every day at about 3:30 pm EST, and I will answer each and every message. Again, I'm extremely sorry that I haven't added to the story, but I promise that I am working on it. Anyways guys, thanks for reading and please leave a review on what you think of the story so far, or, better yet, pm me.**

 **Oh yeah! I almost forgot! I went back and added Goomy to the story. I'm really sorry to all you die hard Goomy/Goodra fans who were probably raging at me.**

 **Bye!**


	9. Chapter 7: Ramos

**Hey guys, I'm back with the next chapter for you all. Thanks to everyone for all the support. I think it's safe to say that last chapter was by far the most popular, so I'm gonna have a real hard time beating that. For that I just wanna say thanks to everyone. Okay enough of my rambling, here's the next chapter. Remember, I don't own any part of the Pokémon franchise.**

When Ash woke up, he instantly wanted to go back to bed. He felt the urge to just crawl under his blanket and just shut his eyes for another hour. But he knew he couldn't do that. He knew that today was the day. Today he would have his battle with Ramos, the Coumarine City Gym Leader. And he was ready.

As he pushed himself up on the bed, he felt a small weight roll off of his chest. There was a small _thump_ as Pikachu hit the floor.

"Pi…" the small mouse complained, just as tired as his friend.

Ash laughed and stood up. Once he was dressed he noticed that Bonnie and Clemont weren't in the room. He left the room to find them, Pikachu following sluggishly. They found their friends outside by the battlefield, the table once again set as Clemont was finishing making breakfast. Bonnie was running around the field, being chased by Chespin and Bunnelby. Sitting at the table, casually talking to Clemont, was Serena. As he approached she turned and smiled at him.

"Well it's about time you got up." She said. "If I had ever slept in this late, my mom would have killed me."

"Sorry to keep you guys waiting." He said.

"No, you're actually right on time. Come on, breakfast is ready." Clemont said as he set the last plate of food on the table.

As the group ate their breakfast, they began to talk about their plans for the day. "Well, since we went to the showcase yesterday, Ash had to put off his gym battle, so we are going to go to the Coumarine City Gym so Ash can challenge Ramos." Clemont explained.

"If you want, you could come watch it with us!" Bonnie said, grabbing Serena's arm. The older girl smiled at her blonde friend.

"Sorry Bonnie, but I'm actually leaving for the next showcase soon. I want to get as much practice as I can so I can win my next Princess Key."

"Oh ok." Said a now frowning Bonnie.

"Hey, where is the next Showcase anyways?" Ash asked, his mouth filled to the brim with eggs.

"It's in Laverre City, which is north of Lumiose City."

"Huh, guess we're gonna have to check it out if we get the chance." Ash said, finally managing to swallow.

"Well Ash, you know there is a Gym in Laverre City." Clemont said.

"There is? Well than we're definitely going!" Ash said. "After our Gym battle of course."

Clemont smiled. "Sure thing."

Once they had finished eating, they all helped to clean the mess and pack up Clemonts portable kitchen set. Once they were done, Serena went over by the Pokémon center doors, were she had left a single, long box.

"Well, I had better get going. Hope you win your battle Ash." She said.

Ash gave her an impish smile. "Oh, don't you worry! There's no way I'm gonna lose!"

Serena laughed. "Alright then!"

Bonnie ran up and gave Serena a quick hug. "Bye Serena! I hope we get to see you again!"

"I'm sure we will Bonnie. Until then, look after those two, okay?" Bonnie smiled, and then gave her a salute. "Yes ma'am!"

"HEY!" Ash and Clemont said.

"Bye guys!" Serena said, waving to them as she left.

"Bye!" the three chorused.

Once Serena was gone, Ash turned to Clemont and Bonnie. "So what do you guys say we get going to the Coumarine gym?"

"Sure!"

And so, the three friends walked through Coumarine city, heading towards the monstrous tree located on the outskirts of town. It took them a good ten minutes to reach the base of the tree. Now that they were closer to the massive plant, they could see that it was easily twenty stories high and probably thicker than a football field. Starting at the very center of the tree's base, a flight of stairs was carved into the tree that snaked its way up the tree until it was hidden by the thick foliage above.

As they got closer, they noticed an old man sitting at the base of the stairs. He was dressed like rancher, with work pants held up by suspenders, a dark green shirt, a large red scarf, and a green cap. He was even chewing on what looked like a piece of barley.

As they approached, the old man looked up, taking a second to look at each of them.

"I'm Ash Ketchum from Pallet town, and I'm here to Challenge the Coumarine City Gym." Ash said, stepping forwards.

"Hmm… is that so?" the old man said looking Ash over. "Well in that case, jus' follow me."

The old man stood up and began walking up the stairs, the trio of travelers following behind. They walked up the winding steps as the man lead them up the tree, until they were so high that they were certain that the tree couldn't continue much further.

And then, suddenly, they stepped into a large area. The first thing they noticed was the numerous green houses and gardens that were scattered around the clearing, each one filled with many different plants and herbs. As they continued to look around they saw a small bedroom off to the side, nestled into an alcove in a branch of the tree. Outside of it stood a few bookcases, filled to the maximum with books. There was also a small kitchen setup nearby. The last thing they noticed was the battle field, which took up the entire center of the clearing.

Even though the three friends had stopped, the old man continued on, until he stood at one end of the battle field. Upon reaching the spot, he turned around. "'ey. You comin or not? I thought you wanted to challenge the gym!" the old man shouted.

Ash looked at the old man with a confused look, until suddenly he realized what the old man meant.

"Your Ramos?" Ash said. He had battled plenty of gym leaders in his travels, but had never met one as old as Ramos. The only one he could remember was Agatha from the elite four in Unova.

"That's right, now, we gonna battle or not?"

Ash smiled, and then proceeded to walk towards his side of the battle field.

"Alright, this will be a three on three battle. The battle is over when one sides Pokémon are unable to battle. Only the challenger may switch out Pokémon." Ramos said. Then he looked at Clemont. "'scuse me young man, do you mind being the referee?" he said. Clemont smiled, and then walked to the sidelines of the field.

"Hope your prepared." Ramos called, pulling out his first Pokéball. Ash smiled, pulling out his own Pokéball. "I'm ready to win this battle Ramos!"

"Alright then! Go, Jumpluff!"

"Fletchinder! I choose you!"

 **Alright guys, that's all for this chapter. If you guys are wondering, no, I will not be writing out their entire battle. Tried it once, wanted to die. So if you want to see what happened during the battle, then go watch the anime. Anyways guys, thanks for reading. Be sure to leave a review or send me a pm with any comments or ideas for upcoming chapters. Also, go check out my new announcement that I created. To get there just go to my stories. Anyways thanks to all of you. Bye!**


	10. Chapter 8: Surprise in the Woods

**Hey guys, I'm back with the next chapter. I hope you guys are really enjoying this story, because I know I am. If you guys haven't checked it out yet, then please go check out my announcement story I made. To find it, just search 'goodgamer' and it'll pop up. I've already uploaded a preview for my SAO story on there so go take a look at that. Anyways thanks for the support guys. As always, I do not own any part of the Pokémon franchise.**

"The battle is over! The winner is Ash from Pallet Town!" Clemont yelled.

"Yeah! We did it!" Ash cheered, joined by his Pokémon.

Ramos walked over to the raven haired trainer, a large grin on his face. "That was very well fought, Ash. I'm impressed." He said, reaching into the pocket of his overalls. "For winning, I now present you with the Plant Badge." He said, holding out the small emblem to Ash. 

Ash took it and placed it in his badge case. "Alright! That's number four!"

"Good job Ash!" Clemont said, walking over to his friend and clapping him on the back. Bonnie ran up to them and wrapped her arms around Ash's midsection, as that was as high as she could reach.

As they left the clearing in the tree, they all waved their good byes to Ramos and began the trek down the tree. "So…" Clemont said, a little nervous. "I guess it's time for us to have our battle."

Ash grinned at his friend. "Yeah! Once we get back to Lumiose City, we'll have a battle in the gym! And you can bet that I won't be going easy!" Ash said, confidence spilling into his voice. Clemont gave him a determined grin. "I guess that means I have no choice but to go all out as well!"

"Oh would you two stop talking about your battle already! We still have to get to Lumiose City!" Bonnie said, becoming annoyed at their conversation.

The boys laughed. "Alright, Bonnie."

The trio headed back to the Pokémon Center, collected their belongings, and then waited as Clemont brought the room key back to Nurse Joy. Once he had returned, they set out, travelling east towards Lumiose City.

"Clemont… how long until we get there?" Ash said as he dragged along behind the lemon haired siblings. They had been travelling along route 13 for about 4 hours now and it was quickly getting darker.

Clemont looked at his guide book and seemed to be trying to estimate where they were. "I'd say that at this pace we will reach Lumiose City in about 3 days, give or take."

"Give or take what?" Bonnie asked.

"Three days." Clemont answered dejectedly.

"Ugh… Guys I think it's about time we set up camp for the night." Ash said.

"Okay, I think I see a good spot up ahead to set up our tents." Clemont said, and lead them to a clearing that sat right next to the road. As Ash and Bonnie began setting up their tents, Clemont began making dinner.

"Hey, Ash." Clemont called. "Do you think you could go find us some water so I can finish making dinner?"

"Sure!" Ash said, grabbing the bucket that they always had, and ran into the woods behind their camp site.

"I wonder if there's a river around here." Ash said, trying to look through the quickly darkening forest.

"Pika…" His partner said nervously.

Ash laughed. "Come on buddy! There's no reason to be scared! As far as we know, you're probably the scariest thing around here!" Ash said as they delved even further into the woods.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, they heard what sounded like a scream.

"PIKA!" the electric type yelled, and then attempted to hide in his trainers' shirt.

Ash ignored his friend and began running towards where he thought the sound had come from. As he was beginning to think that he hadn't actually heard anything, another scream rang out, this time closer though it was now to his left. As he ran towards the area, he heard someone running… too late he realized, at he was suddenly hit by a person as they burst from a bush.

Ash stood up and looked around, dazed. Sitting on the ground a few feet away was a girl that he recognized.

"Serena?"

"Ash?"

"What are you doing out here?" he asked. Suddenly, they heard a roar from the direction that Serena had come running from. Serena let out a small yelp and quickly scurried behind Ash. Suddenly bursting through the bush that Serena had appeared from came a Pokémon. Before them stood the giant, towering form of a Tyranitar.

"A Tyranitar! Serena, why is it angry?" Ash said as Pikachu jumped in front of them.

"I don't know! I was just walking when it jumped out of nowhere!" Serena said, still hiding behind Ash.

As soon as she finished, Tyranitar roared again and let loose a Dark Pulse straight for Pikachu.

"Thunderbolt!"

Both moves collided and filled the air with smoke as they cancelled each other.

"Alright, now use Iron Tail!"

As Pikachu's now metallic tail collided with Tyranitar, it roared again and then, out of nowhere, the small group was completely surrounded by sand.

"It's using Sandstorm!" Ash said, trying to see what was going on.

"Quick Pikachu, use Electro Ball."

A second later, Tyranitar was thrown off of its feet as it collided with the ball of electric energy. As the monstrous Pokémon went down, the sand swirling around them seemed to slow down a bit.

"Now use Thunderbolt!"

Tyranitar began to rise…

"Pika…"

Tyranitar raised its fists above its head…

"…Chu!"

As Pikachu released the deadly bolt of energy at Tyranitar, it simultaneously slammed both of its armored fists in to the ground.

Suddenly, Tyranitar was surrounded by a wall of glowing rock.

"It used Stone Edge as a shield?" Serena said in shock. "How… How is that possible?"

As Thunder Bolt rammed into the rocky shield that now surrounded Tyranitar, all that could be seen was thick smoke… followed by a point of light.

Ash's eyes went wide.

"Use Iron Tail, quick!"

As Pikachu's tail became iron, the smoke disappeared and reviled Tyranitar… preparing Hyper Beam.

As Pikachu rushed towards the armored Pokémon in an attempt to keep it from using the devastating attack, Tyranitar reared up and let loose a beam of pure energy.

Which hit Pikachu dead on.

"Pikachu!" Ash yelled and ran forward, only to be pulled back by Serena. "No Ash! There's nothing you can do!"

Ash watched as the beam slowly came to an end, leaving an extremely thick cloud of smoke. He couldn't see Pikachu anywhere. Ash fell to his knees, tears in his eyes as the smoke still floated in a massive cloud in front of him, unwilling to disappear.

Tyranitar let loose a vicious roar of victory. Nothing had ever faced its Hyper Beam and remained standing. It then turned towards the two humans, the male now on the ground and the female hiding not far behind him. They would pay for thinking they could defeat it.

As Tyranitar stepped towards the pair, however, a sudden pain erupted through its body, starting in the center of its back. Tyranitar roared in agony as it stumbled and then flew forward, a mighty _crack_ as it was hit from behind with something hard.

After a second, Serena looked up to see why Tyranitar hadn't attacked them yet. But now, standing where Tyranitar had a second ago, stood a completely pissed off Pikachu.

"Pi…Pi…Pikachu?!" Serena stammered. "How…How…"

Ash looked up and, upon seeing his best friend, rushed over to the electric type and wrapped his arms around the small creature.

"Pikachu! I'm so glad you're okay! I thought…" Ash's rambling was put to a stop by a sudden roar from a few yards away, as they watched Tyranitar struggle to its feet, glaring at Pikachu.

Ash let go of his friend and looked at Tyranitar with an angry expression. "Guess this still isn't over. Well, I think it's about time to finish this. Pikachu, use Thunder Bolt! Give it everything you got!"

"Pika… Chuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!" the small mouse screamed as it sent forth a pure lance of electric energy, heading straight for Tyranitar. Tyranitar roared in defiance. No way was he about to be beaten by this small Pokémon! As the attack streaked towards it, Tyranitar let loose its own Dark pulse, trying to counter Pikachu's attack. As the two attacks clashed in the air between the two fighters, they struggled against each other, fighting for dominance. Suddenly, the spot where the two met was filled with a powerful explosion, and the entire area was filled with smoke.

Serena covered her eyes as the smoke rushed to fill in the air around her, until she could no longer even see her hands. She waited a second, hoping to hear a sound in the sudden eerie that now filled the air alongside the smoke. When she didn't hear anything from Ash, Pikachu, or even Tyranitar, she began stumbling towards where she had last seen her friends. The smoke made it near impossible to see, causing her to trip as she neared the spot where she had last seen Ash and Pikachu. As she looked back to see what she had tripped over, she yelped. There, lying with his best friend on his chest, was Ash.

"Ash!" she said as she scrambled to his side. From what she could tell from looking at them, the blast from the two attacks had launched them into a tree nearby, knocking them both out. They both had several visible injuries, not to mention that there were probably more she couldn't see.

Serena coughed. The smoke swirling around them didn't seem to be thinning out at all, and still blocked almost all of her senses. _I have to get them out of here before they breathed in too much of the fume._ _The thing is… I'm not even sure where I could take them, or if I could even manage carrying both of them at the same time. But I couldn't just leave them here…_

Silently, she came to a decision. Picking up Pikachu first, due to that the smoke would affect him faster due to his smaller body, she carried the unconscious Pokémon out of the smoke and laid him down up against a tree in a nearby clearing. _One down, one to go_. She quickly went back to where the smoke was. In the time she had been gone, the smoke seemed to only get thicker, forcing her to stumble around, always feeling the ground, hoping she would somehow run into Ash.

As she crawled around, reaching through the wall of fume. She felt her hand touch something soft, and grabbed it. As she drew closer to what she had found, she could see an outline that was unmistakably Ash. and the thing she had grabbed…

Serena blushed. _Oh my god, I accidentally grabbed his hand!_ She forgot all about her holding his hand as she suddenly heard him groan, followed by a fit of coughs. "Ash? Are you awake?" she said trying to peer through the veil that kept her from seeing his face. Once the coughs had ended she heard his weak voice, but couldn't make out his words. "Hold on, I'm gonna get you out of here." She said, and sat him upright. As he began coughing again, she helped him to his feet, and then gently draped his arm over her shoulders. And with that, the duo stumbled out of the oppressing fog and clumsily struggled to where Serena had left Pikachu, where she gently laid Ash down besides his partner, as the boy was once again unconscious.

Serena sat down, leaning back on a tree not too far from where Ash and Pikachu were resting. _I did it… I got them out safe…_ she thought as she slowly slipped into sleep.

 **I don't know about you guys, but I am REALLY happy with this chapter. How many of you guys actually thought that I had killed off Pikachu? And now the cliff hangers begin! What happened to Tyranitar? Will Ash and Pikachu be okay? What about Clemont and Bonnie? It's enough to drive a man crazy! In all seriousness though, thank you, thank you, thank you all for reading. Your love for this story is the reason why I am determined to make every chapter as entertaining as I can. Please guys, as much as these are my ideas, I would really love to hear some opinions from you guys. Please leave a review or send me a PM. Thanks again for your support! Bye!**


	11. Chapter 9: Lost

**Hey guys! I'm back with the next chapter of the story, and I feel like this is a good one. Remember, if you want to see me continue this story then show some support and leave me a review or a pm. And without further ado, let's get down to it!**

Ash groaned. He couldn't figure out where he was. The last thing he remembered was fighting that Tyranitar with Pikachu. There had been an explosion and then everything went black. Other than that he didn't remember anything. Except… there was that moment when he thought he heard Serena talking to him…

Pikachu… Serena…

Ash's eyes suddenly flew open. He coughed, and struggled to move. Falling back against the tree he was propped up against, he tried to just turn his head and look around. To his right, laying in the grass a few feet away, was Pikachu. His best friend looked a little worse for wear, but as Ash watched he saw that he was still breathing.

Past him, leaning against a tree, was Serena. She seemed to be fast asleep, and was covered from head to foot in dirt and what looked a little bit like small bits of ash. She looked exhausted, but still seemed to be in better shape than he and Pikachu.

As he tried to move again, he suddenly yelped as his leg was overtaken with pain… which in turn caused Serena to stir from her exhausted slumber.

She looked around the clearing groggily, attempting to get her bearings back in order, until finally her eyes fell on the spot where Ash was attempting to get up. She got up, suddenly awake as forced her way over to where Ash lay.

"Your awake! How are you feeling?" She said upon reaching his side. He looked terrible. He was covered from head to foot in grim and had holes riddling his clothing, and when he tried to rise she noticed him wincing in pain.

"Ash! Stop trying to get up!" She said, afraid he would hurt himself even more than he already had.

"S… Serena… What happened?" Ash asked, his voice shaking.

"Well, after the explosion I waited for you to come out, but when I didn't see you I decided to go and look. When I found you, you were unconscious, so I had to carry you and Pikachu out of the smoke."

"And what about Tyranitar?"

"I didn't see it, but the smoke was really thick so it was hard to tell where it was."

"Hmmmm…" Ash said, sinking into his thoughts. He tried to move a little and instantly winced again.

"Ow…"

"Where does it hurt?" Serena said, slipping off her backpack.

"My leg."

Carefully, Serena began to roll up his pant leg, until she managed to reveal a long gash in Ash's shin. It didn't look too deep, but it was obvious that it was causing him pain.

"Alright, it's just a cut. I'll just bandage it." She said, digging through her pack. She eventually pulled out a long red scarf and a small canteen.

"Alright, I'm gonna try to wash it out, okay?" Ash just nodded.

Unscrewing the cap from her canteen, Serena slowly poured water onto Ash's leg and gently wiped the area around the wound with a piece of cloth she kept in her pocket. Once all the blood and dirt was gone, she began tightly wrapping the scarf around his leg and the tied it off.

"How is it feeling?" Serena asked.

Ash smiled. "I think it's a little better now, thanks."

Serena smiled back and then went back to digging through her pack again. This time, she pulled out a potion and gently sprayed it on all of Pikachu's wounds.

She then disposed of the empty canister and, with more digging in her bag, pulled out a small container, which she carried over to Ash.

"Here." she said, handing him the container. As he opened it, his eyes went wide. The container held an assortment of food that all looked amazing. He glanced up at Serena.

"Are you sure? I don't want to take your lunch from you."

She smiled at him. "Don't worry, you obviously need it more than I do."

And with that, Ash dug in. Serena smiled as she watched the raven haired boy tear into the food. And then she remembered the situation they were in.

"Okay, so what do we do now?" she asked.

"I don't really know. Normally, I would just ask Fletchinder to go get Clemont and Bonnie, but I left him back at our camp site. And who knows how long it will take them to find us. But then we also have no idea which way would lead us back towards the road. I guess the only choice is to stay here and wait."

"Alright… well what do we do until then? I don't have my own tent and I only have enough food for one person for a few days. Not to mention I used a lot of my water cleaning your cut." Serena said, getting more frustrated the more she talked.

"Well, food shouldn't be too big a problem. A forest like this is bound to have a ton of berry trees." Ash said, glancing around the clearing. "As for the other things, I'm not really sure what to do."

"Alright then, I think I'll go and…" Serena stopped, suddenly hit with another wave of exhaustion.

"Serena! Come on and sit down, you're not in any condition to go out by yourself."

"But we need to find out…"

"That can wait, now just sit for a while."

Serena stumbled over and plopped herself right next to Ash. "Okay… don't let me sleep too long…" and with that she fell asleep.

Ash smiled at his friend and, settling back against the tree next to her, felt his eyes close as he fell asleep.

About four hours later, Serena began to wake up _. Ugh… why is this so uncomfortable?_ As she attempted to move into a more comfortable position, she felt something soft brush up against her. Confused, she slowly opened her eyes, though she still felt exhausted. She looked to see what the soft thing had been and immediately caught her breath.

Next to her, sleeping, was Ash. She began blushing as she realized what had happened. In her sleep, not only had she rested her head on his shoulder, but she had somehow managed to wrap her arms around his, and seemed to be hugging it rather tightly.

Serena began to panic silently. _How did this happen? What do I do? Do I try to move away? But if I move my arms he might wake up! What do I do?_ As she began thinking of ways to get out of her current situation, Serena felt a wave of exhaustion hit her again _. Oh no! I can't fall asleep like this! What do I do? What do I do?_ But, try as she might, she just couldn't fight the need for more sleep. _Crap! I really hope I wake up before he does!_ She thought, sinking back into her sleep.

Another three hours passed before Serena finally stirred once more from her sleep. She immediately looked over and was relieved to see Ash was still asleep.

And then she looked down.

She could feel her entire face flush bright crimson as she tried to figure out what had happened this time. They were still in the same position as when she had last woken up, with her still holding Ash's arm tightly. The only difference this time was…

 _HOW THE HELL WAS I HOLDING HIS HAND?_

 **Alrighty guys! That's a wrap for chapter 9! I guess I'm gonna have to do something special for chapter 10, huh. Well, before that I will be uploading the first chapter to my new SAO story, so keep a look out for that. I'm aiming to upload it before the end of the week since I'm getting close to finishing it now. Anyways, thanks to everyone for reading. Please leave me a review or a pm telling me what you think of the story so far and any ideas you guys have to make it better. Peace!**


	12. Chapter 10: Awkward Situation

**Hey guys. I finally got chapter ten done! I promise that from here on the chapters are going to be getting more interesting, so make sure to keep an eye open for future uploads. Thanks to everyone for all the support on this story and all my stories in general! And now, without further ado, let's get to the story!**

Serena just sat there, looking at their intertwined hands. Her mind was racing almost as fast as her heart, if that was even possible. Her first thought upon looking at their hands had been, _It's so warm_. The next one had been _WHAT THE HELL_!

Serena continued to stare. She had only held hands with one person, and that was years ago, and the thought made her blush even more as she tried to come up with a way to escape her predicament. The only way to escape would be for her to move her arms, but that would run the risk of waking Ash up.

She looked up at Ash's sleeping face. "Alright, I've got to try." She said, letting go of Ash's hand. Taking a deep breath, she tried to untangle their arms as fast as she could. Too late, she realized that it wasn't smart to do it so quickly. As she pulled away from Ash, her arm caught his and sent Serena toppling backwards, Ash falling right on top of her.

 _Oh no._

Serena didn't move as Ash continued sleeping while laying right on top of her, keeping her from moving. _How the hell is he still asleep? At this point I doubt anything could wake him up…_

And then he began moving

 _Oh shit…_

Ash was confused. He had gone to sleep on the ground against a tree. By no means should he feel like he was laying on something soft. _Wait… did I die? I'm in heaven now, aren't I? Only one way to find out._

Ash slowly opened his eyes, and then blinked as they adjusted to the light filtering in through the canopy above. Ash looked around the clearing, but everything looked just as it had when he had gone to sleep. Then he slowly looked down. It took him a minute to figure what he was looking at. The first thing he noticed was the color red, and some golden hair. Then he noticed the blue eyes staring back up at him.

 _Huh… so this is heaven._

Then he realized what was going on. He didn't move, not sure how to handle this development. Suddenly he felt his face become hot as he began blushing almost as much as Serena was.

 _How did this happen? Why am I on top of her? Oh crap, I've gotta say something._

"Um… morning…" Ash said sheepishly.

"Um… uh…." Serena stuttered, completely taken aback by Ash's calm response.

 _Okay, probably not the best response to waking up on top of your friend. I'd better get off before this gets any weirder. OW! Well crap…_

"So, um, here's the thing. You can't move because I'm on top of you, and I can't move because of my leg. So what do we do?"

Serena glanced down at Ash's leg, still wrapped in her scarf bandage. He was right, he couldn't stand with that leg, and if he tried to roll off of her he would risk causing more damage to it.

"I… I'm not sure. I can't lift you off of me, and even if I could, my arms are pinned and I'm still weak from the Tyranitar incident. So I guess we're stuck like this until we think of something or someone finds us."

"Yeah, I guess so…"

They spent the next few minutes in silence, neither of them sure what to say to the other in such a strange predicament.

"So… um… how did your gym battle go?" Serena said, trying to find a topic to break the silence without being weird.

Ash smiled and reached down between their bodies and retrieved his badge case from its spot in his jacket pocket. With a smile that made Serena grin, he proudly showed her his badges.

"So you have four, and I'm guessing that the last one is the plant badge from Ramos."

"How did you know?"

"It's a plant."

"Oh yeah…"

Serena sighed and smiled at the boy above her. "You know, you can really be stupid sometimes."

"Don't remind me." Ash pouted.

Serena laughed, causing Ash to join in. They stopped laughing as they heard a noise off to the side. They both turned their heads to see a small yellow creature stand up from where it had been laying for the past day.

"Pikachu!" Serena said. They had both forgotten about the electric type.

He stood up and looked at the two with a confused look on his face. Once it registered what he was looking at he jumped back in shock.

"Pika!?" the mouse shouted as he stared at the two with a dumbstruck look on his face.

"Pikachu, help us out. We can't move so we need your help to get up." Ash said to his partner.

Pikachu just stood there, not really listening to Ash. _And here I thought it would be May_ , the small creature thought.

"Pikachu!"

"P… Pika…"

"Would you stop staring and help us! It's weird enough without you looking at us like we're aliens!"

Finally, Pikachu managed to calm down and ran over to his friends. After examining them, he attempted to crawl in between their bodies in order to lift Ash off of Serena so she could use her arms.

After three failed tries, Pikachu finally managed to lift Ash for long enough that Serena could get her arms out. Then, she carefully pushed Ash up and tried to slide out from under him, but only managed to get her upper body free.

"Okay Ash, I'm gonna put you down really quickly, okay?"

"Gotcha."

Slowly, she lowered her friend down so that she could regain the strength she had used to hold him up.

As soon as she laid him back down she began blushing again. Although it wasn't as weird, Ash's head was now resting right on her lap. He looked so much like a child that it took all of her will power not to begin stroking his hair.

Shaking herself from her thoughts she once again braced as she lifted Ash as high as she could manage and was finally able to squeeze her legs out from under him.

"Alright, I'm free." She said as she helped Ash to sit up.

"Alright… hey, how did we end up like that anyways?" Ash asked.

"Ummm… we must have just fallen over in our sleep." Serena said quickly, once again blushing furiously.

"Oh, yeah I guess that would make sense."

They sat there for a while, not sure how to continue this awkward conversation. Suddenly, off in the distance, they heard a large _boom_ and saw a pillar of smoke.

"What the…" Serena said, jumping to her feet.

Ash was smiling. "It's Clemont!"

"Clemont? How do you know that?"

"I'll tell you later, but we need to get to that smoke!"

 **And that's where this one ends. I'm not exactly thrilled at how this chapter turned out but, whatcha gonna do? Anyways guys, I promise the next chapter will be better. Thank you all for reading and supporting the story. Please leave me a review or pm with ideas, comments, or just random stuff. Anyways, see you guys next time. Peace!**


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